Ali

Ali, known in the Pamir above all as Shoh-i Mardon, the 'King of Men', and as Mushkil-kusho, the 'Remover of Hardship', is far more than the historical fourth caliph in local belief. Folk tradition makes him a heroic liberator who descends against the divs, slays the demon and frees its captives, a figure scholars set beside the ancient hero Rustam and read as the Muslim overlay of an older Iranian warrior-deity and disseminator of good. His passage across the land is written into the rock as qadamgoh, the footprints and hoofprints that sanctify springs and boulders throughout Badakhshan. Within the house he is the Vouznek pillar, the post of weddings where the bridal pair is seated for good fortune, aligned in the older reckoning with Mehr, the yazata of love and the sun.

Children

• Hasan
• Husayn

Domains

• chivalry and war
• demon subduing
• sacred footprint

Powers

• descend against the divs and free their captives
• leave footprint and hoofprint in living rock

Epithets

• Шоҳи Мардон — King of MenLocal Pamiri usage; the shrine-name Ostoni Shohi Mardon, 'holy site of the King of Men'. (secondary)
• Мушкилкушо — Remover of HardshipBasilov, V. N. (1970). Kul't svyatykh v islame. (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: Bibi FotimaHusband of Fatima.Bobrinskoy, A. A. (1908). Gortsy verkhov'ev Piandzha, on the Panjtan. (secondary)
• child: HasanFather of Hasan.Bobrinskoy, A. A. (1908). Gortsy verkhov'ev Piandzha. (secondary)
• child: HusaynFather of Husayn.Bobrinskoy, A. A. (1908). Gortsy verkhov'ev Piandzha. (secondary)

Sources

• Ali, venerated in the Pamir as Shoh-i Mardon and Mushkil-kusho, is a folk culture-hero and div-slayer whose cult, comparable to that of Rustam, overlies an older Iranian heroic deity; he is the second pillar of the sacred house.: Basilov, V. N. (1970). Kul't svyatykh v islame. (secondary); Andreev, M. S. (1953–1958). Tadzhiki doliny Khuf. (secondary)